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The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: "Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense...Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis...”.

The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.

(From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can include imprisonment and being dishonorably discharged from the military.

So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are confirming that the military will make it a crime--possibly resulting in imprisonment--for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)--whose duty since the founding of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel, instruction, or comfort.

This regulation would severely limit expressions of faith in the military, even on a one-to-one basis between close friends. It could also effectively abolish the position of chaplain in the military, as it would not allow chaplains (or any service members, for that matter), to say anything about their faith that others say led them to think they were being encouraged to make faith part of their life. It’s difficult to imagine how a member of the clergy could give spiritual counseling without saying anything that might be perceived in that fashion.

In response to the Pentagon’s plans, retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who is now executive vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), said on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning:

It’s a matter of what do they mean by "proselytizing." ...I think they’ve got their defintions a little confused. If you’re talking about coercion that’s one thing, but if you’re talking about the free exercise of our faith as individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, especially for the chaplains, they I think the worst thing we can do is stop the ability for a soldier to be able to exercise his faith.”

FRC has launched a petition here which has already collected over 30,000 signatures, calling on Secretary Hagel is stop working with Weinstein and his anti-Christian organization to develop military policy regarding religious faith.

**UPDATE**

The FRC petition has now exceeded more than 40,000 signatures at the time of this update.

I find that the words that I've put in red are beyond ridiculous and overly dramatic.

Keep your religion to yourselves but for crying out loud Mikey Weinstein, learn to tone down the verbiage a little to describe what you see those who share their beliefs doing. Hard to take the man seriously with his quoted descriptions of what he feels these horrid Christians are doing.

Quoting Woodbabe:

This would include ANY faith...thoughts?

(From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

I'm pretty sure they are referring to active proselytizing, and bullying (for lack of a better word) by some. I've read stories of drill seargants or higher ups requiring prayer, that sort of thing. I think if it gets to where it impairs relations within the ranks (favortism or punishment for Christians/non-christians, respectively) is where the line needs to be drawn. I imagine simply praying or offering to pray for others is totally fine. Spiritual rape is a bit much, though...

Ok - I skimmed. (Very short attention spam right now) but this is ridiculous. While a service member should be that first and foremost and not try to shove their religion down their colleagues' throats, they should be permitted to have a discussion with someone without facing court martial. It ticks me off that the DoD would go to these levels to reduce personnel costs rather than really examining their budgets and cutting truly unneeded or overpriced projects.

I'll wait to see how this plays out before making a judgement about it, but I think it would be wrong to not allow chaplains or ministers in the military though, people die out there and they have the right to be given their last rites or whatever the equivalent of that is in other faiths. I know Catholics would want to be able to go to confession and get a blessing before heading out on a dangerous mission.

Oh geeee. The FRC is always having a hissy fit and screaming "Stop picking on us perfect Christians!"

The Armed Forces are supposed to be neutral.Not a big surprise. The Base Chaplain or Post Chaplains of course preach in church....but I see no reason for members of a branch of service to run around speaking of their religions. It does sound like they are trying to recruit.

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